Cry in the Darkness, a Thieves in Time story 12
by Orion Lyonesse
Summary: We finally come to Gauda Prime and its aftermath. Vila and Avon survive, with the help of a surprising character from their past. Can Vila save Avon from his madness or will all his sacrifices be for nothing? Follows 'Final Orbit.' A/V
1. Gauda Prime

Cry in the Darkness 12

_A/N: To recap for those of you coming in late: this story is Chapter 12 in the novel, __Thieves in Time__, a collaboration between myself (pen name: MacBeth Smith) and my co-author, pen name: Ophelia Jones. Published in the early nineties, it enjoyed a respectable popularity in the Pacific Northwest, most notably at Virgule, a local slash convention, and Anglicon, a British media convention, both in the Seattle area, defunct, and sorely missed. It has been out of print for over 15 years. _

_Like the Torchwood fans who, appalled at the end of Season 3, wrote their own endings, work-arounds, and fixes, Blake's Seven fans had a similar response to having their favorite characters annihilated, originally on Christmas Eve, I'm told. This is how my friends and I altered the ending of the series and the slaughter on Gauda Prime._

_From here on, this is technically an Alternate Universe of our own making, using canon characters and original characters, mostly set on the world of Darkover, created by Marion Zimmer Bradley._

_Disclaimer: I don't own these characters; I just enjoy messing with their lives._

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"Damn it, Blake, you can't be serious!

"I am," was the quiet response. "The rebellion is perilously short of funds. The loss of those ships was more costly than you realize."

"But the man was your friend!"

Blake dropped his gaze to the floor. "He was more than that."

"And you're going to sacrifice him to your cause?"

"It's a question of the greater good, Deva. Avon himself would approve…if he knew."

I doubt that." Deva was taken aback. "From what I've heard of the man, willing martyr is not a description I would apply to Kerr Avon." He seemed to consider for a moment. "Survivor perhaps, but martyr?"

Blakd shook his head. "He won't have a choice."

Deva looked closely at his friend, seeing an expression that was new, a person he didn't recognize, someone he wasn't certain he wanted to know. The bounty hunter had taken control of the dedicated rebel. It was not a good sign.

"What makes you so certain he's coming here?"

"I've left a trail he can't help but follow," Blake replied. "He will be here. I'm positive…and very soon."

Deva shook his head, clearly doubting. "Well…" he hesitated. "You are in charge."

"Yes, Deva, I am." With that pronouncement, Roj Blake turned and left the office.

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A small cookfire burned. The spit over it contained the carcass of a small, local critter. Blake turned it once, then leaned back against the tree, eyes closed. He allowed his thoughts to turn to a former time, remembering the man he'd loved and rejected so cruelly, the man who would soon make the ultimate sacrifice for a cause he had originally refused to believe in.

_I wish there were some other way. I don't know if I am capable of killing you, even for my precious rebellion_, he thought.

"Avon…" he whispered to the wind. "Will you understand at the end, that you had to be the one …to die? Can you accept that it's the only way I can be free of the burden I've carried for two years, free of you?"

He leaned forward, rotating the spit again. _If we had stayed together, I wonder what might have come of it._

Further musings were interrupted by the distinct sound of someone approaching from behind. Blake smiled and called out, "You're welcome to share the food."

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Alarms blared sharp and clear, warning lights flashed a counter tempo. Avon stood still, eyes riveted on the familiar figure who had just appeared in the entry.

"Is it him?" Tarrant asked.

"It's him," Vila answered, his expression unchanging.

Tarrant turned slightly. "He sold us, Avon…all of us…even you."

Avon took a step forward and raised his weapon. "Is it true?"

"Avon, It's me – Blake." _Oh, gods…it's Avon…but not the Avon I left behind_.

"Stand still!" ordered the tech, fighting against the emotions he had denied for two years. "Have you betrayed us?" he gasped. "Have you betrayed me?"

"Tarrant doesn't understand!" Blake countered. _That's a lie, but I must cling to it_.

"Neither do I, Blake!"

"I set all this up!" _But I can't go through with it…I can't!_

Blake began to walk towards his former lover, unheeding, unmindful of the weapon trained on him at point blank range. He barely felt the first concussion as the bullet struck him, moving forward yet. He reached out, entreating, begging, hands clutching as the second projectile hit. A third shot halted his movement just as he was able to touch…to hold…

"Avonnnn…" _I…love…_ He slid to the floor, aware of nothing but the name that died on his lips…died as he died. One final breath and it was done.

Avon looked down, unmoving, even as Federation guards entered from all sides. He didn't seem to notice as one by one his friends, his crew, fell to the guards' assault. Finally, he looked up, turning, uncomprehending of the carnage around. He took one more step, straddling Blake…protecting…he smiled, beginning the long, slow descent into darkness…

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A/N: Thus ends the Blake's Seven canon. But not our story! Stay tuned for the surprising return of a long dead friend of Avon and Vila's.


	2. Aftermath

Vila woke, disoriented, to silence and darkness, the two things he hated most. He held himself still, straining for clues. Then he heard a whimper.

Avon! Somewhere near and he needs help, he thought wildly. With no light to see by, he waited until it came again, then he began crawling toward the sound. It never varied, though, which worried Vila. If Avon was coming around, why didn't he say something? Why that unvarying whimper?

He paused when he encountered a body, as the images and sounds came rushing back, seeking to stop him, crush him, but he wasn't having it! Avon needed him!

Finally his hands touched leather and studs. Feeling around carefully, he determined Avon was breathing and that there was an awful lot of blood on him. _Is he hurt or is it…Blake's blood? _He gulped.

Straightening out the crumpled limbs, he disengaged Avon from…Blake's body. In doing so, he found Avon's wound. His fingers came away bloody from the back of his head. _No way to tell how serious it is without light,_ Vila thought.

Resting beside Avon, Vila reached out to shake the man's shoulder. "Avon, wake up, please," he begged, suddenly desperate for a living voice here in the death and darkness. He tried again, drawing only that damnable whimper that cut through Vila like a knife.

Time oozed over him like cold molasses, as he sat in the dark with his lover. It must have been morning, by the weak grey light he'd begun to see through the wreckage of the rebel base, when he heard a voice.

*Vila?* _But…I didn't hear the voice at all_, he thought in amazement. _It was inside my head! _He waited for it to come again.

*Vila, can you hear me now?*

_Oh, my gods, I must be dead! _Vila thought wildly._ I'm hearing Cally_.

_*_No, Vila, I'm very much alive_.*_ There was a trace of amusement in her…voice?_ *_I'm outside, not very far from you. This place is a disaster area, so it might take me some time to get to you. I'm…sorry I'm too late to save any of the others, Vila,_*_ she ended in sorrow.

_*_But…Avon's right here, next to me. He's alive, too_.*_ Vila's mind cried, a sudden fear almost stopping his breathing.

_*_Avon!* Her astonishment came through their mental link quite clearly. *But I can't find his mind, Vila. There's no other mind anywhere near you. I'm…sorry. If he still breathes, that is all he does_.*_

Vila reached for Avon and shook him again, crying, "Avon, you must wake up. Now! Avon, hear me, please!" he sobbed, his head pillowed on Avon's rising and falling chest.

It was long hours later that Cally finally reached Vila. As the light strengthened, Vila just sat, staring at Avon, peacefully resting on the cold concrete floor. Cally climbed down, cleared away more debris, and knelt to examine Avon, then turned to Vila.

Speaking to him for the first time out loud, she asked gently, "Vila, are you hurt?"

Vila looked up at her with dull eyes, shaking his head. "I think I was just heavily stunned. I don't remember it very well. When I woke up, the only sounds in here came from him. He just keeps whimpering, always the same sound. What does it mean, Cally?" he pleaded. "Why doesn't he wake up?" Tears ran down Vila's face as Cally took him into her arms, hugging and rocking the distraught man.

"I don't think he is in there anymore, Vila."

"We can't leave him here, Cally," he protested. "He's breathing, he'll be okay after awhile, I know he will. Please, take us both out of here?" he begged, still crying.

"Well," she began doubtfully, "Maybe between the two of us we can carry him out. I only have a very small scout ship with limited medical capabilities, but, well, we'll do what we can. Okay, Vila?"

He looked up at her face and smiled through his tears. "Okay, Cally."

Avon drifted in blackness. There was no light. There was no sound. This was as he wanted it to be, as it should be. Nowhere, that's where he wanted to be. He felt a tickle, a tingle, as though someone called his name, whatever that was, from far, far away. It went away, however, and he was alone again.

Avon was thinner than normal, Vila discovered, due, he presumed, to the madness that had steadily enveloped the tech over the past year, culminating in the shooting of Blake and the deaths of most of his crew. Vila despaired as he and Cally worked to get him free of the wreckage and to her ship. Along the way, they picked up ORAC from where Vila had hidden it. They undressed and cleaned Avon, then put him to bed in the small ship's lone cabin.

Then, it was Vila's turn to be tended.

"Vila, sit still!" she scolded as he squirmed under her care. "There's nothing more you can do for Avon right now, so let me examine you."

"What are we going to do about him?" Vila asked fearfully.

"There's little more I can do for his body than we've already done," she replied, daubing at cuts and scrapes. She wasn't prepared for the vehemence of his reaction.

"Don't talk like that, Cally! He's not dead, I tell you, he's just…I don't know, gone away. You can't just give up on him! Isn't there something you can try, something you know from Auron?" he pleaded, looking up at her hopefully.

She considered, her eyes distant as she thought about her world, dead now for a long time. Vila watched her, scarcely breathing. Finally she raised her head and looked at Vila.

"Well, there are one or two techniques I've heard of but never tried, techniques to reach deeply into a person's mind. But, Vila, there's always some indication of the person's mind to begin with. Avon…he's a blank to me. I…know what his mind is like, it's taste, it's feel, and, Vila, he's just not there!" she finished. She didn't want that to be true either, but Vila had to face facts here.

"But you have to try, Cally, for him, for me. Please, Cally, please. I'll do anything to help, Cally, really. Say you'll try?" he pleaded, his eyes suspiciously bright.

With a sad smile, Cally nodded. "All right, Vila, for you I'll try. But first, we both need to rest. Sleep, Vila, then we'll see." She shooed Vila toward the co-pilot's seat and covered him with a spare blanket, before strapping herself into the pilot's seat. "I think we're safely hidden here, but soon we'll have to get out. We'll need a place to hide, Vila. Any ideas?" She turned to him. He was sound asleep and had begun to snore softly. She chuckled, nestling more comfortably in her seat, and fell asleep herself.

_Avon floated in darkness. He was at ease, safe, protected. Nothing could reach him here...except that far off cry, the one without words that disturbed the surface calm of his mind. He heard it once again, then all was silence._

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_A/N: Yes, Cally has mental skills they never knew about, but will those skills be enough to bring Avon back?_


	3. The House That Avon Built

Vila woke to the feel of engines throbbing and thought at first he was back aboard the Scorpio. Then he remembered all that had happened and sat up quickly. The view screen showed Gauda Prime diminishing as Cally took them away from the scene of the disaster. Vila was glad. Dropping the blanket, he rose to check on Avon. Cally smiled sadly at Vila's back.

As he entered the small cabin, Vila feared for a second that Avon had died in his sleep. Then he caught the slow rise and fall of Avon's chest, and sighed hugely in relief. He went to the bunk and sat slowly on the edge, reaching to tuck the blanket in more securely about the tech. Avon looked so young and defenseless, lying there unmoving. Vila brushed a lock of hair out of Avon's face, then leaned over and kissed him gently on the cheek.

"Oh, Avon, where are you? Why can't you hear me? Please come back to me, please," he pleaded softly. He picked up the hand lying outside the covers and held onto it tightly.

Cally found him cuddled into Avon's back when she came to check on them a long time later. She stood in the doorway for several moments, taking in the still form on the bunk and the dejected thief. Sighing to herself, she entered the cabin.

"Vila, are you all right?"

He glanced up at her and carefully replaced Avon's hand on the covers.

"Sure, Cally, sure." Then, perking up a bit, he asked, "Are you ready to try to reach Avon now?"

"I guess I'm as ready as I'll ever be to try something I've never done before. So, Vila, get up and let me sit there. I need to touch him to begin the process."

Vila jumped up and out of her way eagerly. Seating herself in his place, she reached over to the still form and placed both of her hands on his face, her fingers seeking out very specific points of contact. Satisfied with her position, she closed her eyes and concentrated.

*Avon, where are you, Avon? Please, Avon, come out to us from wherever you are. Please, Vila and I need you,* she thought at him. She felt no answering echo from his mind, but continued to probe ever deeper. She found darkness and silence, like a house with no one home. Following that analogy through, she proceeded to search all the rooms of the house. She searched the public areas of his mind first, seeing ghostly furniture and even fainter images of people she didn't recognize.

Then she climbed to the next level of his consciousness, his past, his history. Even fainter were the shades she met there. She began to feel something like a far away pain, which heartened her greatly. Maybe all was not lost after all.

Following her instincts blindly, she climbed another level, the attic, she thought, pursuing her own analogy. This level was even darker and dustier than the previous one. Stacked all about were boxes and broken furniture, the remnants of Avon's broken dreams, she feared.

That was when she started hearing the sound. It was the same whimper that Vila had first mentioned hearing. She followed it, weaving in and out of the debris in the attic. It began to grow louder, until she rounded a pile of boxes and saw him. He appeared to her as a very small, beautiful, heart-broken child. He was huddled, cowering, amid a pile of rags, crying softly to himself.

Carefully, she knelt and reached toward the child, taking him into her arms. He came unresisting, but continued crying as she rocked him and stroked his hair and neck.

"Avon, it's all right now, I'm here and Vila is nearby. We'll protect you, Avon. Please stop crying," she crooned over and over. Still, the sobbing continued.

Abruptly, she was back in the cabin, seated on the bed. The transition jolted her into pulling her hands from Avon's face.

"What happened, Cally? Why did you stop so soon? Please try again, please!" Vila begged.

She turned unseeing eyes in his direction, then, after a moment, she blinked and focused on his face. "So soon?" she questioned. "I was in there for hours, it seemed." She smiled up at a shocked Vila. "I found him, Vila, he really is in there!"

All the tension left Vila at once, leaving him in a surprised heap on the deck, looking up at Cally. "He is?" he breathed. "Thank the gods." He covered his face with his hands and wept in relief.

Cally smiled at his reactions and stroked his down-turned head for awhile, before giving him the bad news.

"Vila, he's not out of danger yet. He's deeper in catatonia than I've ever seen a person. Right now, it could still go either way. He could come back to us, but he could just as easily drift away completely. I just don't know how to even begin to draw him back to us." Suddenly she felt unbearably tired. However long she'd been gone in reality, she found she had expended a considerable amount of energy.

"I have to rest now, Vila, before I can make another attempt to reach him. Will you get some rest too?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'll stay here…keep Avon company." He looked over at the sleeping figure. "I…think he needs me here, Cally. You go on."

She slipped out, knowing Vila wasn't aware of her anymore.

_Avon felt currents pulling at him. The darkness was split by brief flashes of lightning. The thunderclaps he expected rumbled far away, disturbing his peace. He squirmed in his solitude, suddenly uncomfortable. And there was that cry off in the distance. He tried to ignore it all, to get back to the darkness and silence he had known, where he was safe. As he waited for the storm to pass, a high wind seemed to come out of nowhere, pushing, pushing, pushing._

Vila found he was sitting on Avon's bed again, though he couldn't remember getting up off the floor. Cally was gone, for the time being, and he felt safe, alone with Avon. Following his own well-developed instincts, he slid his arms under the too-quiet body and turned Avon toward himself, embracing him as he had so many times before. Hugging the tech to him, Vila sat rocking gently back and forth for a long, long time, mindlessly comforting and being comforted.

At last, his own strength failing, he arranged them both along the narrow bunk, spooning their bodies, with his arms still about the tech, falling into an exhausted sleep.

_Avon resisted the pushing wind, not knowing where it wanted to push him to, but unwilling to go until he knew. He could still hear that far away cry, even over the wind. It drew him, but he resisted that draw as much as the push of the wind._

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_A/N: There's always hope, isn't there?_


	4. She Said, He Said

When Cally woke, she went first to check on Avon and Vila, finding them still asleep together. She smiled sadly, hoping with all her heart that she could help Avon. Once, she remembered, she'd been very attracted to Avon, before she'd discovered his preference for first Blake and then Vila. That hadn't disturbed her, though, and she'd become good friends with both Avon and Vila over time. She knew the two had a long history together, though only Vila had ever talked about it. There was just a feeling of familiarity, of comfort between them that only came after years of interaction, much more time than they'd had together on the Liberator. She'd always been curious to hear more, but not enough to intrude into their privacy.

After assembling some food for herself and Vila, she returned to the cabin to wake Vila. The smell of the food woke him before she could.

"What's that divine smell?" he asked groggily, disentangling himself from Avon. As his eyes focused and his brain went into gear, he realized where he was and the trouble they were in. He turned quickly to check on Avon. Finding no change, he sighed and reached for the kava Cally held out to him.

He cocked his head at Cally, asking, "Aren't you supposed to be dead? We…thought you were when we left Terminal. At least, Avon said you were. Where have you been so long, Cally?"

She put the tray of food down within easy reach of both of them, then leaned against the wall, sliding down it to sit cross-legged on the floor. Tilting her head, she looked up at Vila from beneath curly bangs.

"I was dead, Vila, well, almost, I think. There's a kind of trance that Auronae go into automatically when we're severely injured. You just…go away, to heal. Your metabolism is so low it doesn't register on even sensitive instruments. I…went away, Vila, until I was rescued by other Auronae. Somehow I called out, even though I believed myself to be the only one of Auron left. The others who found me were travelers like myself when Auron…died. They came, found me, and took me away from Terminal."

"But it's been so long, Cally! Why didn't you contact us, at least let us know you were alive? We all missed you, especially Avon, but he…shut us out, in grief, I think. He wouldn't even mention your name, he hurt so much. He loved you, too, Cally. I think it was part of what drove him mad, there at the end." Vila stopped, remembering that Cally hadn't asked and he hadn't offered to tell her what happened at the rebel base on Gauda Prime.

"I was very badly hurt, Vila. It took me most of the time just to recover sufficiently to even remember who I was. Then I started searching for you. Somehow I contacted ORAC, who called me to Gauda Prime. I'm sorry, Vila, sorry I didn't come in time to save your other friends, especially Dayna." She bowed her head, remembering the dark huntress with the quick laugh and quicker gun.

Coming out of her reverie, she asked, "Vila, are you ready to tell me what happened back there?"

He'd known he'd have to tell her the truth, but he'd been dreading it, just the same.

"I…don't know where to start, except maybe on Terminal. I…pulled Tarrant out of that underground base when it exploded. When Avon found Tarrant and me, he said…he said I'd saved the wrong one." He looked straight into her eyes as he asked, "We…all thought we heard you die, Cally, crying for Blake! I think that hurt Avon the most, that you would call for him and not Avon. Why, Cally, why?"

"I…did? I don't remember, Vila, I really don't. I'm sorry it hurt you and him, though. It can't have been easy for any of you to leave, believing me dead. Maybe, if I'd healed faster, I could have eased his mind enough to stave off his madness. I don't know, Vila."

"Well, we were rescued by Dorian, a real madman, who wanted to feed us to his pet monster. Brrr," he shivered in remembrance. "Anyway, that's how we met Soolin, acquired our ship, the Scorpio, and established Xenon Base." He shook his head sadly. "They're all gone now."

Shaking himself out of his memories, he continued. "We tried, or rather Avon tried, to organize the rebels, to get funds for the rebellion, to keep ahead of the Federation and Servalan. It all went wrong, somehow."

He looked sharply at her and asked, "Do you remember Anna Grant, that time we went back to Earth?"

She nodded, so he continued, "He loved her, on Earth. They were supposed to go away together with the funds he embezzled from the Federation. Back then, he believed if he could get enough money, he wouldn't have to worry about the Federation or anything or anyone again. I told him long ago that he was wrong in thinking that, but he wouldn't believe me. When he was caught, she was caught, too, and tortured to death, we thought. Anyway, when we went back to Earth that time, he discovered she'd been a double agent and betrayed him. He…killed her, in front of Servalan.

"I think the madness started then. It only got worse after Terminal. All his plans went wrong. He…even tried to kill me, over Malodaar." Vila stopped, a chill, skeletal hand clutching at him. Cally reached up and squeezed his arm. He started at her touch, looked at her and smiled, as he continued, "We made up after that. He apologized, but I think it was one of the hardest things he'd ever done. We pushed the madness back a little then, you remember that night." Vila smiled at her, that night's pledge from Avon one of the treasures of his life. Cally smiled back, the memory giving her too a warm feeling. Then Vila sobered. "But, when ORAC found Blake and Xenon Base was destroyed, there was no stopping the madness. Tarrant crash landed Scorpio on Gauda Prime while the rest of us teleported down safely. He…was a brave young man, was Tarrant."

"It was a trap, of course, though I still don't know whose trap it was. Blake was there, but he'd changed." Vila paused as Cally drew in a quick breath. Sadly, he continued, "Yes, Blake died in there too, Cally, but it was Avon that killed him. I still don't know why. That was mostly Blake's blood we washed off Avon." He fell silent, remembering.

After a long silence, Cally started as she connected something Vila had said. "Vila, we brought ORAC out of Gauda Prime, but where is the activator key," she asked urgently.

Vial sat up, thought, then dove for the pile of Avon's clothes in the corner. Pawing through them, he found what he sought. "Here!" He held up the key, his eyes shining with hope for the first time.

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_A/N: Can ORAC make any difference? Will he even want to?_


	5. ORAC Takes a Hand

After a quick check of Avon, they both raced to the flight deck, where they'd stored ORAC. Hesitantly sliding the key home, Vila asked, "ORAC, are you there?"

+Where else would I be?+ came the peevish answer.

"Do you know where we are?"

+We are on Cally's ship. If you are through asking stupid questions, kindly inform me as to what has happened?+

Drawing a quick breath, Vila began. "Uh, we found Blake, it was a trap, Tarrant was hurt crash landing Scorpio, Avon killed Blake, the rebels killed Dayna, Soolin, and Tarrant, and someone tried to kill Avon. I was stunned, the base caved in, and Cally rescued Avon and me." Vila stopped, out of breath.

ORAC was uncharacteristically silent for a long time, digesting the events he had missed. Finally, he asked, +Where is Avon now?+

Cally spoke up. "He's had a head injury and Vila believes he's gone mad. I…couldn't contact his mind at first, but I used an Auron technique for deep probing and found him…hiding in there, as a small child. I…haven't been able to pull him out yet," she diagnosed.

+Take me to him and connect my sensory electrodes,+ he ordered. Vila was glad to comply.

As they watched ORAC's lights flicker in silence, Vila softly asked Cally, "Do you think he can save Avon, Cally?"

"I hope so, Vila, but I think he can only diagnose, without computerized medical equipment."

+You are quite correct, Cally. Vila, please disconnect me. I've done all I can. Now, it's up to the two of you.+

Vila was already working at the connections when he heard the last of ORAC's comments. "Us? ORAC, what can we do? We don't have medical equipment or supplies or even anywhere to go that's friendly right now," he protested.

+We shall have to use Cally's mental skills, at first. Your diagnosis, Cally, was quite right. His catatonia is as deep as one can get without dying of it. You must go in there and bring him out.+

"But I've tried that, ORAC. I found him, held him, but he took no notice of me. I don't know what more I can do."

+You must try, Cally. If Vila augments your powers with his familiarity of Avon, then between the two of you, you can bring him out.+

"If you say so, ORAC, of course I'll try." She smiled at Vila encouragingly. "Vila, I think we both should sit on the bed. I'll connect with his neural receptors with one hand and you hold my other hand. Just…relax and close your eyes." She held out her hand, drawing him to the bed.

Gingerly, Vila sat down as Cally carefully placed her other hand on Avon's still face. Vila closed his eyes just as she finished her connections. He gasped and just barely managed to keep his eyes closed, as he felt himself being led by the hand up the steps and into a huge, seemingly empty house. Cally led him immediately up two sets of stairs and into a large dusty attic. They threaded their way through shadowed heaps of boxes and broken furniture, toward a sound that Vila realized he'd been hearing ever since they entered the house. He identified it as the whimper he'd used to track Avon in the dark on Gauda Prime. That realization sent a chill up his spine. He held his breath as they rounded the final pile of boxes and beheld the Avon-child, curled up and crying in the dark.

Cally immediately went to him, but didn't touch him. She and Vila studied the situation, evaluating what they could do differently than she had done last time, to no effect. He spied it first: a shining silver cord stretching away into the darkness beyond Avon. Vila pointed it out to Cally, who nodded.

Cally gathered the Avon-child into her arms, while Vila cautiously reached for the silver cord. Grasping it, he started to pull it towards them. Like a thin lifeline, he reeled it in.

_Avon had resisted the wind and the cry he heard over the wind, but the storm wouldn't go away! Lightning and thunder surrounded him in a violent maelstrom. It swept him from his lethargy and sent him spinning out of control through the darkness, kiting on the wind. He cried out in terror, suddenly caring what happened to him, but not knowing how to save himself. There! That cry came again. Avon answered it with an incoherent cry of his own. Reaching out blindly, his searching insubstantial hand met a solid one that gripped his and pulled him strongly, steadily, out of the storm and into a calm, peaceful harbor. Thankfully, he lapsed again into his lethargy, noting idly that it wasn't dark around him anymore, but the pearly grey of incipient sunrise. He was grateful that the wind and storm had disappeared as well. Finally, Avon slept._

As soon as Vila touched the cord, the Avon-child stopped crying. The silence was an aching void to Cally and Vila, who didn't know how to take it, but couldn't stop what they were doing long enough to find out. Cally watched Vila intently, neither knowing what to expect. What did happen was so totally unexpected that both gasped in unison, as the child grew before their eyes into an adult, still curled up in Cally's arms. The moment that happened, the silver cord in Vila's hands dissolved.

Cally hugged the form in her arms, Vila joining her. Abruptly, they were back sitting on the bunk with Avon. But this Avon was awake, his eyes open, though they appeared feverish. He stared at them, unrecognizing.

Cally withdrew her hand from Avon's face and turned a brilliant smile to Vila. "He's back with us now."

Vila could only stare at Avon through the tears of gladness streaming down his face. "Thank you, Cally, thank you," he breathed.

Later, on the flight deck, Vila and Cally discussed what to do next. "We don't have the resources in our small Auron colony to take you in, Vila. We'll have to think of somewhere else to go, somewhere that Avon can get the help he needs to recover from the shock of Gauda Prime." She looked thoughtful for a moment, as though trying to retrieve a far off memory. Then her face lit up. "I've got it, Vila, Cottman IV! I've never been there, but word has it that the whole culture is based on psi. Their healers of the mind are said to be the best. And…their culture, I'm told, doesn't frown on…relationships such as you and Avon have."

Vila thought a moment, then nodded. "Yes, it sounds like just the place for us, for awhile, anyway, until Avon is back to normal, whatever that turns out to be. With him just lying there staring at the ceiling, not even able to feed himself, I'm going to need all the help I can get. ORAC?" he asked.

+Yes, what is it? What is so important that you must disturb my research?+

"Can you instruct the ship's computer on the coordinates of Cottman IV?"

+Of course I can.+

"Then do so, ORAC. We need to take Avon there to recuperate."

+Yes, that would be a satisfactory place for him at this time.+ ORAC seemed just a bit subdued, as though he'd just been reminded that Avon's well-being had a direct effect on his own.

"Thank you, ORAC," Vila said, realizing as he did so that he was treating the computer as a person again.

B7B7B7B7B7

_A/N: This is the end of 'Cry in the Darkness.' The story is continued in 'Out of the Darkness.'_

_The planet they are bound for isn't mine; I am only borrowing it. Cottman IV owes its existence to Marion Zimmer Bradley. If you haven't been introduced to her world of Darkover, run, don't walk, to your nearest library! Now!_


End file.
